Sean O'Neal

Wendy Whitman

PULASKI -- In the 1960s and '70s, Pulaski was the boom town of the New River Valley.

There were plenty of jobs, and longtime Pulaski residents remember people coming from all over the New River Valley to shop.

Now, the unemployment rate stands at 7.6 percent and more than 1,400 county residents are collecting unemployment, according to December data, the most current available. In neighboring Radford and Montgomery County, the unemployment rates are 6.3 percent and 5.4 percent, respectively.

Hearing the words "There's nothing in Pulaski" is commonplace.

A major blow was dealt to the town in 2007 when Pulaski Furniture closed its last domestic plant, leaving many in the town unemployed.

Recent economic struggles have also forced Volvo's plant near Dublin to lay off hundreds of workers, the most recent coming in January.

And Germany-based TMD Friction Group will close its Dublin plant, citing bankruptcy, cutting more than 140 more jobs.

But while the feeling of better days gone by may be widespread, there are some who think differently.

"Pulaski, historically, has always reinvented when [it] needs to," said Joel Burchett, Pulaski Town Council member.

"When the railroad went, mining came in, and then heavy industry and manufacturing. When one dried up, something came and took its place."

With planning, initiatives, hope and some prayer, there are people in Pulaski who are not just waiting for the reinvention, but heading it up.

SEAN O'NEAL

Walking into the store nearly four decades ago with his grandfather, the little boy, about 4 years old, made a beeline for the candy aisle.

Piling every kind of candy he could reach -- wax lips, gum, lollipops -- into his pulled-out shirt front, the boy ran over to his grandfather, who was leaning on the counter talking to the storekeeper.

After the boy deposited his loot on the store counter, his grandfather picked him up and dunked him headfirst into the old-fashioned soda cooler, letting the boy pick out a Nehi soda.

The pair then went back to the grandfather's house and sat on the porch eating candy, drinking soda and watching the rain come in over Draper's Mountain while the grandfather played the banjo until the boy fell asleep.

The boy was Sean O'Neal in the 1970s, who would often visit his grandfather, who lived in Pulaski.

O'Neal moved to Pulaski, where much of his family was originally from, in 2007 after living in other places around the world.

"Some of the best memories of my life were here in this little town," O'Neal said.

And those memories are the reason O'Neal, now 41, isn't ready to give up on Pulaski quite yet.

O'Neal is the vice president of the Greater Pulaski Alliance, whose main goal is to promote downtown business. He's also the owner of Main Street Coffee and More, which he opened in April 2008, and BardicHeart Remodeling, a construction business he started in 2007 after moving to Pulaski.

O'Neal closed the coffee shop Jan. 12 because of slow sales, and he said he has let workers go from BardicHeart because of the recent slowdown in construction jobs.

Struggling in business, however, makes O'Neal even more committed to working for change in Pulaski by showing people it has something different to offer than other New River Valley towns.

"It's a sad town right now," O'Neal said. "There's sort of a cloud of depression because of all the jobs lost."

He has opened a civic center in a building he owns on West Main Street in downtown Pulaski with live music Fridays, Saturdays and some Sundays. His original plan had been to open a youth center in the building, but problems -- including a lack of funding and people to help O'Neal run it -- forced him to close the youth center in 2008.

"You got to take the good out where you can and realize it ain't always about you," O'Neal said.

One of the biggest concerns of the town of Pulaski is bringing business back to downtown, said Shirley Bandy, president of the Greater Pulaski Alliance and manager of the farmers market.

"Maybe something like a civic center and the [Pulaski] theater is going to be a good thing, because it's going to bring back into downtown to shop," Bandy said.

Things are much better, Bandy said, than they were seven or eight years ago. There are more businesses, rundown buildings have been cleaned up or demolished, and there are people with plenty of ideas on how to improve on the town, from tourism to keeping young people off drugs, Bandy said.

"There are glimpses of the town's spirit left," O'Neal said. "It's been kicked hard, but you got to keep moving forward."

WENDY WHITMAN

Wendy Whitman, 42, said she probably sees a disproportionate number of people with drug addiction and money problems compared with some in Pulaski.

It's because of her job at what's commonly known as "the Building," or Building Lives Developing Godly Examples, a mission on West Main Street in downtown Pulaski.

"I feel God has called me to Pulaski to help bring change," Whitman said. "The people here are crying out for something different, and they're not finding it in drugs or alcohol. We're trying to show them they can find it in God."

But helping those people with counseling, paying bills or clothing their children is why she's there. Whitman moved to Pulaski in 2004 from Richmond after meeting the man who is now her husband, Ray Whitman, who grew up in Pulaski.

And now, neither is planning to leave until they feel God tells them to, they said, even though Ray was laid off from Volvo in 2008 and the pair must make do on Wendy's disability payments from a back injury.

"We don't talk about God unless people ask for prayer," Whitman said. "It's more about seeing love and allowing them to feel they're on the same level, not below us because we're helping them."

Whitman said she never would have dealt with her own problems with drugs if there hadn't been someone who had introduced her to God.

She spent time in prison in the early 1990s, lost custody of her sons and nearly committed suicide before finding God and getting clean in April 2007. She said she's stayed clean through her faith and because of Ray, who has never done drugs.

If people "don't learn self-worth by working for themselves, things will never change."

But hopes for expansion of the Building's services -- grief and drug counseling, emergency housing and mentoring programs are among the plans -- are limited because of monetary issues.

The Building needs a new roof, flood insurance, an elevator and significant work to meet new fire codes, for a total of about $250,000. The Whitmans and Building owner and founder Kathy Denny and her husband, William, are working to raise that money.

They have started a fundraiser called Change for Change, where people can donate spare change at collection points around the New River Valley, and have sent a letter to supporters asking for contributions in the form of volunteer time and monetary contributions.

"We want to offer a place for people to go, no matter what their circumstances," Whitman said.

Offering an accepting place makes people feel good and might inspire some to give their lives up to God, said Barry Blankenship, who has been volunteering at the Building's thrift store for about two months with his wife Brenda.

"It's a great help in Pulaski because it helps people who need help but can't get it other places," Blankenship said. "It makes people feel pretty good [to come into the Building.]"

Blankenship said both he and his wife had committed their lives to Christ because of the Building, specifically because of Denny and her work there. He said the couple volunteers there because they feel it is God's work to help others and because Denny and the Whitmans had helped the couple through hard times, helping to pay thier natural gas bill a few winters ago during a price increase. They also helped Blankenship find a donated suit for Barry and Brenda Blankenship's Feb. 7 wedding.

The Whitmans were even married in the Building in July 2007, while it was under construction.

"They don't get paid to do this, just like we don't," Blankenship said. "Kathy and this mission are the best things to happen to Pulaski."

MORGAN WELKER

At first, soft-spoken Morgan Welker doesn't seem like a person who would seek the spotlight.

But Welker, 25, ran for -- and won -- a seat on the Pulaski Town Council in 2008, making headlines as Pulaski's youngest council member on record and bringing with him what he calls an outsider's perspective on Pulaski.

He grew up in North Carolina and Pittsylvania County, moving to Pulaski in 2004 to work at Motion Control Systems in Fairlawn after graduating from Virginia Tech.

Welker has ideas for the town: more recreation such as public basketball courts; cultural attractions such as the newly renovated Pulaski Theater; and investments in infrastructure, including turning Main Street in downtown Pulaski from a one-way street to a two-way street to make it easier for shoppers to access the shops.

With the most recent town elections in May 2008, there was a change in leadership, with many of the council members on the younger side than in previous years, including Welker, said council member Joel Burchett.

"It's almost unheard of for someone his age who's not from here to get voted in, and I think it's symbolic of people here realizing people here have to change," Burchett said.

"People are hungry for fresh ideas ... to attract industry and showcase our resources a little better and not just accepting the status quo."

The most obvious problem is the lack of work in Pulaski, perceived or real, Welker said.

"The only way to attract new businesses is to make Pulaski more attractive," Welker said.

That includes cleaning up blighted properties, greening the town by planting trees and flowers, and eliminating the drug problem in certain areas of town, which Welker said is under way.

"We need to say, 'This is a nice town and business can come here,' " Welker said. "I really think we're on the way there."

Welker said most people in Pulaski want change but have a hard time trying to overlook the unemployment problems and generally dismal feeling people have about town.

"I'm an engineer," Welker said. "I see a problem and I think, 'What's the most efficient way to solve the problem?'"

ROCK DUKE

Almost anyone who has been to a Pulaski County High School football game has noticed Rock Duke.

For more than 20 years, Duke, 67, known to most as Skipper, has been the flag-carrying, face-painted, safety-pinned guy at PCHS football games.

This year will mark Duke's 21st year carrying the 16-foot pole adorned with an 8-by-14-foot red flag decorated with a gold cougar paw. For a few years before that, he carried a smaller, decorative flag similar to ones people hang on their front porches.

"It never occurred to me I would be here this long," Duke said. "Once I started doing it, it was just the love of the game and the outstanding young men playing.

"I couldn't think of any other place I'd rather be on a Friday night."

Duke, a 1962 graduate of Pulaski County High School and a former player, said he remembers attending games more than 30 years ago when the school was smaller and the players "got their butts kicked every weekend."

"There wouldn't be 50 people there at the games then," he said.

When the two Pulaski High schools consolidated and former coach Joel Hicks came on board in 1979, things changed and the football program became what it is today, said Jack Turner, head football coach for the Cougars.

"It's about pride," Duke said. "It gets passed on from older players to the younger ones, and once they instill that, the pride will be there."

And the pride in the team has been a constant, even through problems the county has encountered, including declining enrollment in the school system, Duke said.

People grow up watching the games, and many play in high school. It's the biggest thing to do on Friday nights, and soon the cycle repeats itself as children grow and play, Turner said.

"Pulaski is football and football is Pulaski," Turner said.

Although most of his friends have left Pulaski to find work in other places, Duke said he doesn't plan to leave. He grew up in Pulaski, raised his family in Pulaski, and says he'll be buried in Pulaski.

"As the years went on, things changed," Duke said. "People go to the cities, go north because they can make more money."

Duke remembers the days when downtown Pulaski was filled with shops and the railroad was the hub of the town.

"When I was growing up, all the stores were downtown," Duke said. "And the steam locomotives would come through and just take your breath away."

Duke said progress in the past five years of cleaning up blighted buildings -- and not to mention a few more football titles, he noted with a smile -- have helped the overall feeling of hope in Pulaski County.

He said his hope for the county is that people will stop shopping at big chains and go back to shopping in the local stores because it helps the local people.

"So many businesses have shut down because a little town can't compete with big chains," Duke said. "I've always admired the little man."

And the best way to help anyone, he said, is to show love and kindness.

"I couldn't say what the solution is for Pulaski County," Duke said. "But I'm just passing on what was passed to me -- love.

"Money can't touch it."